The invention relates to improvements in apparatus for manipulating rod-shaped articles of the tobacco processing industry, and more particularly to improvements in apparatus for converting discrete arrays of parallel filter rod sections, plain or filter cigarettes, cigars, cigarillos, cheroots, stogies and like smokers' products into a continuous mass flow of articles wherein the articles form several layers without any transverse partitions between them and are moved, either intermittently or continuously, to one or more processing stations.
An apparatus which is used for the same purpose is disclosed in commonly owned U.S. Pat. No. Re 32,001 granted Oct. 8, 1985 to Wahle. The patented apparatus has a mobile conveyor including a series of walls which are movable to and from upright positions and are advanced stepwise beneath an evacuating station where the compartment between two neighboring walls receives an array of rod-shaped articles from an inverted container of the type known as charger or tray. The compartment is dimensioned to receive an array in such a way that the configuration of the array remains unchanged. The conveyor is then set in motions and the wall in front of the articles of the transferred array is moved out of the way so that the articles on the conveyor can be added to the trailing end of a mass flow consisting of previously transferred articles. The patented apparatus operates quite satisfactorily, however, the mechanism for transporting the walls is rather bulky, complex and expensive.